Lions Look to Carry Momentum Into Playoffs

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - This past weekend Penn State (7-20-1) closed out its
final home series of the season with a 3-3-tie verses fellow College Hockey
America newcomer Lindenwood (4-23-2).

Following a devastating 3-1 loss, which included three unanswered goals by
Lindenwood on Friday afternoon, the Nittany Lions rebounded with a brilliant
effort in their final home contest of the season.

"That
was an unbelievable gutsy 65-minute effort against an unbelievable set of
circumstances," said Penn State head coach Josh Brandwene. "I am extremely
proud of them and their effort, their courage, their stick-to-itiveness and
that's going to be my takeaway from today. Today was a big step for this
program and I'm really proud of the adversity we handled."

While
this past weekend marked the final home games of the season for the Blue and
White, it also marked the last time the women's team will suit up in Greenberg
Ice Pavilion.

The Nittany Lions have a lot to look forward to in the future as their new
home, Pegula Ice Arena, is currently being constructed and is on schedule to be
completed sometime before next season. While the future facility will offer so
much for the young program, Greenberg will always be known as the first home of
the Penn State women's hockey program.

"I have
a ton of great memories from this building as a player," said Brandwene, "I got
engaged at center-ice in this building and I even came back here to coach
against Penn State. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here with this
program right now looking at what we have to look forward to at [Pegula], but
also in this historic first season, which was spent right here in this building
and I'm proud to have done it with this group of kids."

While
the result in the final game at Greenberg wasn't one of which the players were
hoping for, junior goaltender Nicole Paniccia, who made 44 saves on the day,
believes she couldn't have asked for more out of the team as a whole.

"We
played so well today, and I'm so proud of everyone," said Paniccia. "As our
last home game, like coach has been saying all year, we want to play our best
hockey at the end of the season and I definitely think we have been. I'm really
proud of my team and I think it was a good way to end our final home series
here."

Now, as Penn
State says goodbye to Greenberg, it looks to prepare for a four game road trip
to end the season that will begin next Friday in Rochester, N.Y. where they
will face Rochester Institute of Technology (12-12-5).

As the
days leading to the CHA tournament continue to wind down, the Nittany Lions
will use all of the momentum they have earned up to this point to continue to
improve before the playoffs begin in early March.

"All of
this is helping us going into the playoffs," said Brandwene. "We have been in
so many one-goal, two-goal games I've actually lost count to this point,
especially this semester. We are a battle-tested underdog and that is a great
place to be going into the playoffs and I'm really looking forward to these
next couple weekends against some great competition. Our goal continues to be playing
our best hockey down the stretch because anything can happen in playoff time."